In the middle of SJW mongering, I find the gun in the room.

[simson918]

I'm watching my way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer, first time since I was a teen. I didn't realize how much programming this show did on me.  That said, in the middle of ham-fisted social justice causes, incompetent, violent, insane, weak men, empowered and ridiculously strong, implausibly smart and capable women, Joss Whedon manages to make a visually striking reveal of the gun in the room.

 

 

Interestingly this episode (S4E22) aired May 23, 2000.  Seasons three(1998-1999) and four (1999-2000) spend considerable time critiquing corruption in government.  I suspect it was because the Republicans held a majority in the House and the Senate, not because of Bill Clinton's litany of scandals, debackles, and murderous escapades both foreign and domestic.  Now Whedon makes Military-Industrial complex worshiping blockbusters like "The Avengers" and started a super PAC for Hilary Clinton in 2016.

[Together-Whenever-Wherever]

That's a powerful gif. Yeah, I remember Buffy. I didn't like the show then for reasons I couldn't explicate, I imagine I wouldn't like it now.

 

Ol' Joss can get away with the odd insight, because he stuffs his pieces full of fluff. The opposite, a lot of insight with little fluff, is not possible for him or his ilk. And that's the problem.

 

Movies like The Matrix are rare exceptions that prove the rule.

[aviet]

Interesting. I've surmised that a lot of my reactionary, uninformed SJW-ballpark leanings I picked up came from cartoons. In particular Captain Planet, which was featured a band of perfect, multi-cultural young adults who had the power to summon a super-hero who had the ability to effortlessly destroy a number of enviro-villains whose business model was producing nothing but needlessly pollution, cutting down forests etc. A few years ago the topic of Captain Planet came up with a friend who is a spring-coil-socialist. I said that Captain Planet was probably UN propaganda. He was aghast. We went on Wikipedia. Turns out it was written by chairman of fake new outlet, CNN, largest landowner in the US and billion dollar UN donor - Ted Turner and another UN apparatchik.

When I was young I used to think any factory giving off emissions were 'pollution factories', which existed solely for the purpose of creating pollution.

Other media in this vein were Fern Gully in which forests were cut down for fun and infected by humanised oil slicks and The Smoggies in which a bunch of European treasure hunters needlessly polluted at the expense of some Mesoamerican-looking creatures. I always questioned what was the point in making these films, with all the resources they must take up.

I'll make sure my children don't view all this propaganda and instead view moralising stories:

[twinklingwinter]

Could you tell me how the show was "SJW mongering"? I don't remember much of that. Sure, the show has a lot of magically overpowered women who didn't earn their power, but what else is there? I did not detect a lot of propaganda. That's why I loved it so much, I think. Maybe it's because it was a while ago. I watched that episode you linked again, "Restless". I agree that that scene with the gun might have been a statement about Government, but it may also just be what Buffy is feeling at the moment about Riley. It's Buffy's dream, after all. I compare this with the dialogue in Willow's dream:

BUFFY: "But what else could I expect from a bunch of low-rent, no-account hoodlums like you? Hoodlums, yes, I mean you and your friends, your whole sex, throw 'em in the sea for all I care, throw 'em in and wait for the bubbles, men with your groping and spitting all groin no brain three billion of you passing around the same worn-out urge. Men! With your ... sales!"

You could say that this is Joss Whedon going on a feminist men-bashing rant, but I'd disagree. I agree with this reviewer that says:

"This speech from Buffy could mean a lot of different things. It could represent Willow's subconscious opinion of men, which might be influenced by her emotional turmoil surrounding Oz's abrupt departure and brief return. At the same time, this could represent how Buffy actually feels about men, which after Parker and the soon-to-be gone Riley could be so. Harmony is crying in the background, and the only thing I can think of that this could possibly represent is Buffy's human half. I think Buffy, who's dressed in black, represents the other half -- the Slayer. That's why Harmony is so sweet and Buffy is so forceful and hard. Some interesting evidence is that there's also a dead guy dressed in black lying on the floor in between Buffy, the Slayer, and Harmony, the girl. This also could be foreshadowing how Buffy is going to close up even further emotionally after her break-up with Riley. It's becoming increasingly obvious that Buffy has been a lot more emotionally distant in her relationships since she had to kill Angel in "Becoming Pt. 2" (2x22)."

My point is that it's all about the characters in the show, and not about a universal statement that the show is trying to make.